The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-02-02

UoS IL tuS w bih. Jill
ing them it looks like in the end you
might supp1ant them"
She turned quickly with little cry,
and the pink deepening in her cheeks.
"Oh," she laughed. Z" the clouds
didn't give them but sup last night.
81 see they were little niggardly
with the drops" he said. perhaps
they were more lavish where no femi-
nine Ariel was apt to get up with the
sun and do their work for them"
ooh, it wouldn't do for the clouds
to depend upon my thoughtfulness
very Often" she laughed. 81 was a
little nervous from the concert last
night, l think, and wakened early
The birds were singing so extraya-
gantly | couldn't sleep again. so rose
and Joined in the tuneful hubub.'
Il heard you, think, but | did not
notice that any other bird was sing
ing!"
AZ made more noise than they! l
was fearful lest l should waken you,
so left off my matin hymn and came
out here to play the cloud, as you
say"
81 am grateful for the motive, but
the hymn was very pleasant" he
laughed; indeed their hearts were so
light and the morning so fair they
could not choose but laugh. II doubt
not the flowers have returned thanks,
too, for noticed you were quite an
efficient cloud; indeed, quite comely
bit of fleece floating among the rain
bows!' laughingly indicating the curv-
ing flower borders with sweep of his
head as he took the watering-pot gen.
thy from her hand and began to shower
them.
"Shall / thank you for that? You
are so fine this morning am not quite
sure that follow you," she laughed.
'Then / am surely insane" he
sighed; "yet, for that matter, youth in
June | believe is always slightly crazy.
rOh, l saw the pretty little favor you
did the bee! ! must thank you for
that"
'He had overloaded himself, poor
fellow"
Eyes, his stomach; he was little
pig when it came to honey. fear.
What if he had stung youe Most
creatures do when one does them good
in this world, they say"
"Not bees, unless you hurt them,
nor people either, l think, unless one
brushes them little in doing them
good. F"
(Which is usually the case. guess;
sort of ignoble recompense, l take
it," and he sobered a little, looking
down at the bees about their feet.
"What droll little fellows they are,"
she said, STOPPING forward and watch
ing them.
s.They are very business-like and
serious; when they enter one of these
tiny cerulean or vermillion restaurants
they proceed at once to the tablet"
| They both fetched a little half-mus-
ing laugh as they watched.
''You must not speak irreverently of
the flowers" she murmured, without
turning her eyes. Sometimes ! think
they are the ears of God and the bees are
whispering and murmuring their graf
itude into them"
In that sentence she seemed to come
nearer to him than ever before. He
felt little thrill, as if their souls, like
two vases of a crystal so clear they
were invisible, had touched and Vi
brated.
Eyes, yes" he half whispered, "that
is beautiful! / had not thought of
that; but sometimes | had fancied they
were the mouths of spirits whispering
to us with perfume of the hidden and
wonderful things that lie deeper than
our sight"
After that they were soberer. and,
sauntering down the walk to the foot
Of the lawn, they noted the shades and
hues and chickering's in the valley that
lay below them. A slight breeze was
moving the leaves of an oak that hung
above them, and thrush from a
neighboring vine-matted wall flew in
among the leaves and began his jocund
fluting.
"Ah! isn't he fine?" said Celeste,
pausing and touching his arm to stay
him and leaving her hand there with
pressure light as a leaf as she looked
up at the bird. They stood still mo-
ment listening to the clear ecstatic
song when John Earling, almost
trembling with the hour, half whis-
pered:
ait is like chain of bubbles blown
of honey floating up into the sky! Yet,
it is not so sweet and human as the
song you sang last night, Celeste, nor
quite so glal," and his eyes came down
to hers and light passed between
them. Then the girl looked down at
the grass, and close beside her foot a
little stray flower was glancing up like
an eye on its furry stem, and she
stopped over it and John Earling saw
her pearly neck turn pink and her
hand tremble as she plucked it.
isn't it exquis ite?' she said, rising
up and beginning to open the leaves a
little without lifting her eyes to his.
He leaned forward slightly and they
looked silently into it, A little knot
of velvet of gold with maritime anthers
was at the bottom with a ring of petals
like dainty moth-wings curving up,
and at the heart rain-drop, which, in
Celeste's unsteady hand ran around the
knot of gold like liquid spark.
| ''But it has no scent!' she said
81 presume it's maker thought its
beauty quite sufficient with smile.
Eyes; he was satisfied, else it would
have been different
even a God might well be with such
an exquisite result, it seems to me.
"As in the thrush, l suppose; the
voice was enough. The creating cause,
hearing it, forgot that the bird had a
| dull coat, and left it so.
.'Yes; our ears are less fine, yet, list
ening, even we forget the bird s brown